Principial investigator:
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dieter Peters
Leibniz-Institut
für Atmosphärenphysik
Schlossstr. 6
18225 Kühlungsborn
peters@iap-kborn.de
Co investigator:
- Dr. Ingo Kirchner
Ingo.Kirchner@met.fu-berlin.de
- Prof. Dr. Hans-Friedrich Graf
hans.graf@geog.cam.ac.uk
Summary:
In the 1980-decade a large area of total ozone reduction was observed over Europe during January, with values twice as large in its centre as that of the zonally symmetric trend. We showed that large-scale transport changes due to planetary waves are primarily responsible for that, as well as for changes during other winter months. The influence of such changes on the large-scale dynamics of the middle atmosphere is unknown. Hence, in the frame of the project we carry out a systematic investigation to improve our understanding of the feedback processes between zonally asymmetric solar radiative changes and dynamics. The following scientific questions results:
- What is the structure of the decadal zonally asymmetric ozone changes and trend of the 1960-2000-period, and what processes have caused the structure changes in the middle atmosphere of the extra-tropics?
- How do the zonally asymmetric ozone changes or trend during the 1960-2000-period influence the radiative and dynamical coupling of atmospheric layers?
- Which direct effect have the solar forcing changes induced by these decadal zonally asymmetric ozone changes (including variability of solar activity) on the dynamics of the middle atmosphere or are feedback processes more important?